As some of you know Dave Gray, a founding member of VizThink, has been working on his new book “Knowledge Games: The Visual Thinking Playbook” along with co-authors Sunni Brown (VizThink Austin) and James Macanoufo (XPLANE).
“We’re moving from an industrial to a knowledge economy, where creativity and innovation will be the keys to value. New rules apply. Yet 200 years of industrial habits are embedded in our workplaces, our schools and our system of government. …

Frequent VizThink contributor, and founder of The Grove International Consultants, David Sibbet recently spoke at TEDxSOMA. In his 10-minute talk entitled “Visual Meetings: A Revolution in Group Productivity” he quickly outlines some of his thoughts and insights gleaned from his 38-years of experience as a visual facilitator.
In his own words:
“My own ideas have formed over the 38 years I’ve been a visual practitioner and are condensing into a book for Wiley & Sons on …

With his webinar just an hour away (not too late to register) I thought it’d be fun to share this video that Karl posted about a year ago where he breaks down how to draw an eye (with a broken pencil!)

Sunni Brown in Austin has just let me know about the next Vizthink Austin community event coming up on February 3rd, 2010. They’re lucky enough to count VizThinkU faculty member Austin Kleon as one of their own and he’s graciously agreed to present his Visual Thinking for Writers session for the upcoming session.

Following the success of “Drawing & Design”, Karl Gude is back for part 2: “What Should I Visualize?”

Visualizing content in the form of maps, charts, diagrams and a variety of other ways can help people understand complex information. Graphics done well communicate data quickly and precisely. A well-executed diagram gives a much more powerful and memorable experience than a mere verbal description.

During this approximately one hour-long workshop Karl introduces you to some formulas for spotting opportunities where visuals can be effectively used.

Struggling with Writer’s Block? Taunted and daunted by that blinking Microsoft Word cursor? Do you feel like you have a lot to say, but can’t figure out how to get what’s in your head into words?

Writing is linear. Your brain is not. Visual thinking is the tool to wrangle your non-linear thoughts into clear writing.

In this hour-long webinar, we ’step away’ from the computer and look at techniques for making writing with our head and our hands.

Consistently rated as one of the favorite facilitators for our conferences and workshops, Karl Gude is back with an all-new workshop for VizThinkU called “Show Don’t Tell: Drawing & Design”.

Often, concepts need to be sketched out so that others can “see” what is in a person’s head, and this requires confidence in one’s ability to do so. Most people are visual learners who can more easily understand highly complicated concepts when they are drawn out as opposed to only being written about, but people can worry that their visualization skills are no match for the task at hand, and so they write…and write, and write.

In this two hour workshop, Karl teaches you the two “D’s” of visual communication, drawing and design and gives you simple visual tools and rules that anyone can use to sketch out your ideas and then package them all together.

Idea Mapping is a powerful whole-brained visual thinking tool that enhances memory, note-taking skills, thought organization, planning, productivity, creativity, communication, and clarifies thinking. It uses color, key words, lines and images to connect thoughts associatively. Idea Maps are the natural expression of the way the brain processes information associatively.

This interactive session covers the fundamentals of mindmapping, will give you ideas on how and where to use them, and give youthe opportunity to apply what you’ve learned during the session.

While there’s little question about how visuals can be used to better communicate your ideas not a lot gets said about how visual thinking can be used for brainstorming & planning, even less with respect to personal development techniques.

In this VizThinkU workshop, we explore how visual thinking can be used in personal, and professional development.

Our two facilitators, Joy Meredith & Sean Griffin, have made names for themselves with their individual techniques so be ready for an amazing session of self discovery & planning.

What can two comedians teach you about making your presentations better? More than you might suspect.

Imagine the work environment of a stand-up comic: Performing in an unfamiliar environment, to an unfamiliar crowd and they know there are at least one or two people out there in that dimly-lit room who probably want to take them down a peg. Sound familiar?

Maybe remind you a little of your last speaking engagement or sales presentation?

While we’ve focused a lot at VizThink on making your presentations look more appealing and be more effective from a visual stand-point, we haven’t spent a whole lot of time on the skills around delivering it – which is why we started assembling this VizThinkU course. While not directly a visual exercise or skill the art of delivering your presentation is a very important component of telling your story. This workshop will introduce you to new ideas about engaging and interacting with your audience as well as approaches to think quickly on your feet and react to unexpected situations.